Thin Ice Finale

March 24, 2010

Shizuka and Stéphane finished 3rd on Sunday in the Thin Ice Finale, performing to Beyoncé's "Get Me Bodied".

On Friday, the judges placed them 4th. However, on Sunday it was announced that they won the public vote, so they went into the finale as the second best ranked couple after Marie-France & Michael and before Shae-Lynn & John, Jamie & Patrice and Elena & David.

On Sunday it was the judges' marks and the ballroom's audience's votes that counted. Due to some technical problems, the audience voting didn't work (despite three successful rehearsals) and eventually only the judges' marks could be taken into account.

Thus the final placement is as follows:

1. Marie-France Dubreuil & Michael Weiss
2. Shae-Lynn Bourne & John Zimmermann
3. Shizuka Arakawa & Stéphane Lambiel
4. Jamie Salé & Patrice Lauzon
5. Elena Berezhnaya & David Pelletier

We'd like to thank everybody who voted online for Shizuka and Stéphane after Friday's show. They were given a hard time by the judges for not doing enough pair skating, but we're very happy to know that so many people enjoyed their programs all the same. They've worked very hard and loved working together.

Stéphane has now returned to Switzerland and will be working on a new exhibition program with Salome Brunner this week. On Monday he will travel to Russia where he will skate in two exhibitions. From there he will go to Stockholm and Osaka for further shows.

http://www.stephanelambiel.ch/?p=news

My Meeting with Stephane

So after getting home on Saturday morning at 3am and getting up at 9am to go view apartments I went to bed at 9pm so that I could be ready for Sunday.

I awoke at 3:45am and drove into New Jersey and then caught a train to New York city's Penn station and then got on an amtrack to New London CT about 20 mins from the MGM Grand. Marni was very nice and picked me up and we headed off to the casino/hotel.

When we arrived and picked up our tickets and I headed over to the main doors to the ball room with Stephane gifts and flowers for him and Shizuka. When I walked over one of the two assistant producers (Tuly and Sonia) ran up to me and were so excited that I came back to try to meet with Stephane. The knew that I was upset when I left on Friday night. I was so greatfull that they remembered me. Then they told me to hold on, sometime on Saturday they had told Stephane that I had come up to meet him from % hours away and he felt bad that he had not had time on Friday when I was there first.

I was then greated by the executive producer Terry O'Neil and he said that he was going to take me back to meet Stephane when they skaters were done doing camera angle checks. So he took me back and I was waiting and I spoke with John Zimmerman and David Pelletier who were both very nice and thanked me for comming to see the show. The Stephane came out of the rink.

I was excited and nervous all at the same time. H e even remembered that I had come from 5 hours away and thought that it was very nice. I really do not remember what we talked about but he was very nice and meeting him really was a great experience. I do remember stating about how much i like his skating and he also asked me if i liked the show and how my trip up to see it was. He was so nice to sign my photo I brought and the book for me even addressing the autographs to me. Then we got 2 photos together.

Me and Stéphane

while he was signing my autographs Shizuka walked in and I wanted to give her the flowers I brough for her here are the pictures with her.

Me and Shizuka

Me and Shizuka again

Then I went out and went into watch the show. I loved the Sunday show not only did I love Stephane and Shizuka, I also loved all the rest too. I loved the side by side triple jumps and the spins and also thier perfromance was also superb as well.

photos from the rink

The judges seats

The jumbo screens in the rink

We then went out where they were doing the autograph signing and we go in the line. Stephane was the first one to come down the line where I got to speak with him again (I shoudl have had him autogrpah the Thin Ice stuffed dog but i felt i got enough from him) I took some video of him signing autogprahs for everyone to see:

My Adventure to see Thin Ice

I left my house in Philadelphia at 10 am and we arrived at Foxwoods at 3pm. I picked up my tickets and grabed some lunch. We were wondering around in front of the entrance to the ballroom and off to the right there were large curtains hung and I could see Stephane stretching in the "backstage" area. I also then walked outside to get some air (the casino was smokey) and I saw him aslo through the window stretching. Also Elizabeth Hasleback was outside with her husband and children also being guarded by a few securoty but she is very pretty in person. I the meet Marni for her to sign the banner. here are some photos from that:

Me with the banner

Marni and me with the banner

Marni signing the banner

Then we meet up with upnights and she was able to also sign the banner and we all got to sit and talk about Stephane and figure skating in general. We all went to the show where I was able to wave banner for Stephane but I was in the section right next to judges so I did nto get on TV only the other side of the audience was sceen on TV. The show was amazing! not only was Stephane and Shizuka great all the skaters were fun to watch. It was awesome to see Stephane do a quad and all his great spins, I did not care that the judges said to do more moves together becouase it was great to see him do all the things he is known for! We then all meet upagain for the autograph signing...where my roomate Bobbey got a picture with Kristi yamaguchi:

My friend Bobby with Kristi Yamaguchi

and Marni and Me and Bobbey both got photos with Shizuka

Marni with Shizuka

Marni and I then decided to get tickets for the Sunday afternoon show for a second chance to meet Stephane.